The Clock Chimes Once
by Nimbiose
Summary: The first time he met her, he was ten. Fujimoto Shiro, fem!Mephisto, and the beginning of their relationship. One-shot. Part 1 of 5.


**The Clock Chimes Once**

**Summary.** The first time he met her, he was ten. Fujimoto Shiro, fem!Mephisto, and the beginning of their relationship. One-shot.  
><strong>Rating.<strong> PG-13  
><strong>Warnings.<strong> Genderbender with fem!Mephisto, some blood idk.  
><strong>Pairings.<strong> None.  
><strong>Disclaimer.<strong> AnE belongs to Kazue Kato.  
><strong>General things to know (!).<strong> this is the first part of a planned five part one-shot series which gives some insight into the relationship of Fujimoto Shiro and fem!Mephisto. mostly because inquiring minds want to know how this genderbender would work out.  
><strong>AN.** hellooo shiny new fandom! have some fem!Mephisto i shamelessly wanted to try writing! oh, btw, unebta'd. i've got more planned when i manage to churn out the rest of this series, and i'm planning on doing this fast since college is looming ever closer on the horizon and lord knows if i'll have time for this then.

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><p>The first time he met her, he was ten.<p>

He was the sole survivor of an entire village, hidden somewhere in the snow of the mountains. The villagers prided themselves on being far away from communication, allowing them to live - what they considered - more _natural_ lives. They were closer to nature, as opposed to being surrounded by electronics, tall buildings and polluted air. None of them were exactly what the Order would label as competent Exorcists, but most, if not all, had some degree of skill when it came to vanquishing demons, which also made them proud.

As is often the case, it was their pride that inevitably did them in. Believing their barriers to be strong enough to keep any demon at bay, the villagers did not bother to check for any weaknesses in their security. They were also fully against the idea of checking their own for mental or spiritual issues – they considered themselves above that.

They were thus quite unprepared for the demon that, preying on a saddened woman whose husband was cheating on her, lay ruin to their village and annihilated them, erasing them from the map. By the time the Order realized and dispatched Exorcists, it was too late.

As the team of Exorcists trudged up the steep mountain path, grunting and bemoaning their climb, an eerie silence settled around them. There were no signs of wild life, and the wind seemed to have run away. For this, the Exorcists were thankful, although concerned as to what the state of the village may have been. Since the barriers set-up by the villagers had been heavily weakened due to the attack, the Exorcist team had no trouble getting to the site.

Walking in through the rundown gate, several of the Exorcists visibly flinched or looked away from the ground. The snow at their feet had been dyed by the blood of the corpses, creating a pink hue that was grotesquely beautiful.

"How long do you think they've been like this?" asked one of the Exorcists.

"Under attack? Or dead?" a female Exorcist snorted, glancing around in clear distaste.

From the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed a figure dart behind the door of a destroyed building. Tensing slightly, she gestured to the rest of the team. Slowly, they cornered the building, and after a few more, careful rites and preparations, deemed it safe to enter.

The inside wasn't much better than the outside, the female Exorcist noted, as she saw scraped paint and the remains of furniture. Stealthily, she made her way through what remained of the rooms, passing by what may have once been a kitchen, then a family room. It was in one of the bedrooms that she heard noise, her hearing much better than that of her companions. Cautiously, she stepped in, cringing slightly at how loud her footsteps sounded when she was trying to be as silent as possible.

She was quickly able to track the source of the sound: there seemed to be light shuffling going on behind the doors of a closet. As she neared the doors, the sounds became louder, leading her to believe there was a violent demon behind it.

Imagine her surprise, then, when the closet door burst open and instead of an angry, bloodthirsty demon was a small child, throwing holy water in all directions and screaming something about avenging his family.

(Unnoticed by the child, whose eyes had been firmly closed, the few drops of holy water which landed on the Exorcist's skin resulted in slight sizzling sounds and cracks of what seemed to be electricity. She grit her teeth, but her face betrayed no pain.)

"Calm down, kid," she sighed, tension leaving her shoulders with ease as she rested her arms on her hips. She hated dealing with kids – the Doctor in their team was much better at that.

The kid stopped, and cracked one eye open, before blinking. Then his eyes widened to a size that frankly worried the Exorcist, his jaw hanging open.

What the child saw before him was a young woman, not much older than his oldest sister had been. She had a curious hair color – it seemed to be a dark blue, slightly curvy and reached until just past her shoulders, and he could barely make out pointy ears peeking out from between her tresses. She wore a short, white jacket with grey buttons and white pants, pink (they _were _pink, weren't they? An almost revolting shade of the color, in fact.) snow boots and pink ear mufflers.

Surprised beyond measure, he dropped his flailing arms. They had both held weapons which had become vital to his survival: holy water and a small pickax. The items were dropped as well, and as happiness flared within him at seeing the first live human in weeks, he launched himself at her.

The female Exorcist staggered and fell under his weight with a yelp. She was about to chastise the kid when she noticed his shivers and quiet sobs. Sighing, she awkwardly wound her arms around the kid, patting him lightly on the head. Rumbling from outside destroyed all chances of further comforting, since it was the prelude to the rooms destruction.

The female Exorcist kept a firm grip on the child as they were both flung away with the debris. Looking up, she found herself gazing at the impossibly red eyes what she could only describe as an absolute beast: hunched over, hairy, with sharp teeth and long claws. And it was currently chewing on the arm of one of her team-mates. Lovely.

Groaning, she sat up, and cradling the kid against herself with one arm, she faced the beast.

"You look positively dreadful, dear," she informed, grinning sardonically.

She could hear the yells of the rest of the team outside. The beast roared, far too gone in its madness to even notice _who_ it was attacking. Mentally damning herself for being caught unawares, the Exorcist bit her lip as she realized she wouldn't get out of this one too easily.

"Guess I'll have to use _that_, then," she muttered, "_Eins, zwei, drei_,"

A pink, patched up umbrella with a curious hilt suddenly materialized in her hand. The beast rorared once, feeling the slight shift of energy in the air, before lunging. Holding out the umbrella and opening it suddenly, some form of energy burst out, hitting the creature directly. When she closed the umbrella, all that was before her was a cloud of dust.

Glancing down at the kid, who was _not_ staring at the remains of the beast with horror but at _her_ with something akin to reverence, she grinned, showing off pointy teeth.

"So what's your name, kid?"

"Sh-Shiro…Fujimoto, Shiro,"

"Nice to meet you Shiro, you can call me Lilith,"

Her grin was the quality of hers he'd remember most. As the rest of the team appeared, she tried to hand him over to the Doctor, to no avail. The kid would not be separated from her.

It came as no surprise, then, that when she was relocated to Japan as the head of the Order's branch there and as True Cross Academy's headmistress, he'd follow suit, despite the fact that he'd been expressively forbidden to do so.

He knew Lilith wouldn't tell. Shiro had a feeling she liked him – if just barely.

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><p><strong>AN.** i rather liked the idea of fem!Mephisto fighting with her umbrella so, uh, yeah. now for some tl;dr ramblings:

**- i'll** try and remember to explain why a centuries-old demon is going around gallivanting with a team of Exorcists a few decades before the series starts. Mephisto has a pretty high Exorcist rank, but we don't know for _how _long he's had it, so hopefully that'll help.  
><strong>- regarding fem<strong>**!**Mephisto's name: the name Lilith has different meanings in demonology depending who you talk to. some people have at times considered her Satan's love interest, others think she's the first woman, not Eve, and Adam's equal, thus making her an 'enlightener' of women of sorts, and of course, she is well known as a sinful, lustful creature. (if you want to know more, i've got interesting linkage hurhur) in any case, the name was riddled with enough importance for what is allegedly a female demon for me to choose it as fem!Mephisto's name. i entertained the thought of calling her Carmilla or something else from fiction, since Faust and Mephistopheles both come from Goethe's novel, but i sorta became attached to Lilith. oops.

so yeah, part one of five. i'm looking forward to writing the rest. comments are always appreciated.

**EDIT (Aug 17, 2011):** finally got around to re-reading and fixing grammar and wording. also, just so you guys know, this is a one-shot. it's part of series, but the next part is going to be a separate one-shot, not another chapter. so you don't need to Story Alert this or anything haha. either Author Alert me, or check the AnE section of the site for updates. thank you for all the Alerts though :P


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